Starting a Yoga Practice at Home
Jan 28, 2020 | Written by Leticia Padmasri
A home practice is a way to bring yoga into our daily life, deepening our awareness of the unity between body, mind, and spirit. Other benefits include not needing to travel, it is inexpensive, we don’t have to remember to bring our yoga gear, and we can wear what we like. I also see it as a great moment of transitions that indicates our yoga practice is becoming a lifestyle, rather than something we do sometimes. The great sage Patanjali, who wrote a collection of 196 Indian sutras (aphorisms) on the theory and practice of Yoga (Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali), advises that steadiness of the mind will only come with a practice attended for a long time, without break, and with sincerity. For anyone who begins a home practice, I believe sincerity is there already! Consistency and frequency can be more challenging, but they are the keys to experience the benefits of yoga.
To keep coming back to the mat at home we have to:
Set realistic goals and start with small segments of time (10-15 minutes)
Begin with basic beginner yoga sequences and progress mindfully as our skills improve
Create a space for the practice that is clean, quiet and sacred where we can keep the mat and basic props – strap, blocks, and blanket
Last but not least, continue attending a group class to keep us inspired and involved with community.
Another crucial point for creating this new habit is sequencing. A lot of us can be uncertain about which poses to choose and in what order. Integral Yoga has a brilliant sequence that balances the nervous system, taking us into a state of physical and mental stillness in which we can experience our divine and peaceful true nature. The practice consists of asanas (physical postures), yoga nidra (deep relaxation), pranayama (breathing practices), and meditation. It is a comprehensive system for personal transformation, working with all the layers of our being: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
A summary of each of the individual practices that make up the Integral Yoga class:
Centering and chanting of mantras: to bring our focus to the present moment and set the intention of peace for the practice
Eye movements (Netra Vyayamam): to turn the senses inward and to relax the eyes
Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskaram): to warm up and remove the energy of stagnation, preparing body and mind to turn inward as we move through the physical postures (asanas) and subtler practices
Standing poses: to create strength, stamina, and coordination throughout the entire body
Back-bending postures: to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, energizing and activating eliminative processes
Forward-bending postures: to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, stimulating the rest and digest response
Inversions: to bring balance to all the systems of the body. To change the mental state by changing perspective on the world. In the advanced level, the inversions come after the standing poses
Spinal twist postures: to do a final tone and balance of the autonomic nervous system
Yogic Seal (Yoga Mudra): to close the physical practice, sealing the energy and deepening awareness
Deep Relaxation (Yoga Nidra): to allow the benefits of the asana practice to be assimilated and a great stress reduction technique by itself!
Breathing practices (Pranayama): to further calm and purify the nervous system, increase vitality, and quiet down the thought waves of the mind. To prepare for concentration and meditation.
Meditation: to transcend the mind and reconnect with the true Self.
These are the basic elements that will allow you to put together a hatha class and to approach your home practice with confidence. You can make the class short or long to fit your schedule. You can vary the poses within each category as your practice progresses. For a short practice, for example, you could practice one round of sun salutations, one pose in each category, three minutes in savasana, one minute of deep breathing followed by a one-minute meditation. This would make your class short and complete.
I hope this can help you to get started with your home practice and turn it into a standard part of your daily routine. For an example, check out this video where I created a 20 minutes Kapha dosha-pacifying home practice with the sequence of Integral Yoga.